External Hard Drive detected off and on and showing as local disk E:

sunlesslilac

Commendable
Oct 5, 2016
2
0
1,510
I have a Seagate Backup Plus external HD at 4TB and suddenly it stopped working correctly today. It suddenly started being detected as a local drive E: (and when I reboot, if it is plugged into the laptop it seems to try to boot from this drive). But it does not stay connected. It will detect for about 3 seconds, then show nothing. This happens in Windows Explorer, Device Manager, and Disk Management. I cannot even keep it long enough to uninstall any drivers or anything.

Last night when I turned off my computer I noticed that the HD was still on and unplugged it, but suddenly today it stopped working.
 
Solution
If the drive disconnects/disappears, I doubt that there's a software tool that can access it.

There's something physically wrong with the enclosure or the HDD itself. Some users, that don't really want to go with the data recovery or the RMA option, take the drive out of the enclosure and attach it internally.
Yet, this may not work due to various reasons:
- Proprietary connectors.
- Hardware encryption.
- There would be no point in that in case the HDD itself has failed.
- Will void warranty.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD :)
Hi there sunlesslilac,

So the drive shows up as a local drive and it disappears from Disk Management and Device Manager after a couple of seconds right?

If this is the case, then you can start with troubleshooting the connection. You can attach the drive with different USB and power cables.

If the issue persists and if the drive disappears after a couple of seconds, I doubt you will be able to access it with software tools. It would not hurt to try though. You can run some data recovery tool in order to see if the drive would be recognized. In case it is, you better back up the data stored on it.

If the drive is not recognized by software tools, you have a couple of options:
- RMA the drive if it is under warranty.
- Contact a data recovery company in case the data is crucial.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD :)
 

sunlesslilac

Commendable
Oct 5, 2016
2
0
1,510
Hi D_Know_WD,

Thank you very much for your response! Yeah, it keeps appearing then disappearing every few seconds. I tried a number of troubleshooting guides and some of the software tests from Seagate (they can't even detect the drive though...), but nothing seems to work. I also tried other cables, but also to no avail. Are there any other software tools you think would work?

Thanks again!
 
If the drive disconnects/disappears, I doubt that there's a software tool that can access it.

There's something physically wrong with the enclosure or the HDD itself. Some users, that don't really want to go with the data recovery or the RMA option, take the drive out of the enclosure and attach it internally.
Yet, this may not work due to various reasons:
- Proprietary connectors.
- Hardware encryption.
- There would be no point in that in case the HDD itself has failed.
- Will void warranty.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD :)
 
Solution